To quote the immortal Denny Green, the 2016 Honda Civic Coupe is who we thought they were. The two-door compact broke cover Tuesday before the Los Angeles Auto Show and confirmed our suspicions for the eagerly anticipated coupe.
The Civic Coupe will be powered by a pair of four cylinder engines, a 158 horsepower 2-liter and 178-horsepower 1.5-liter turbo four.
According to the automaker, the Civic Coupe is nearly 3 inches longer and 2 inches wider than the outgoing model. That translates into 8.4 cubes more of interior space and fully five more inches for rear passengers’ legs, just like the sedan.
Also like the sedan, the Coupe sports a range of trims starting with the LX all the way up to Touring. A six-speed manual is only available on lower trims, fitted to the 2-liter four. A continuously variable transmission is standard on higher grades, including the 1.5-liter turbo. The Civic Coupe will get Si and Type R treatment later on, so it would be prudent to expect row-your-own mills on those cars.
Honda announced the car would go on sale in March but did not specify a starting price.
The Type R will be based on the 5-Door, not the Coupe.
Full stop. There will be a Civic hatchback in the US once again?
Praise be Lord Sorichiro!
More like a squashback, but yeah.
Should be called a “crashback” because it looks like a trunk after a rear-end collision.
It looks like the love child of the Honda Civic and Hyundai Tiburon.
There have already been reports that the 5 door is coming. Evidently, the factory in the UK that builds them has more capacity than demand, so the decision was made to bring it to North America.
Chevy Cruze is to offer a hatch in North America with the redesigned model as well.
I think Ford has paved the way with the Focus 5 door, as it seems to do well. Most of the highly equipped Foci (I hate that term!) I see are 5 doors.
The more hatches the better, I just wish Ford and Honda would see fit to bring the 3 door versions here. I love this new Civic coupe, and if I got a new Civic, itd be a coupe since there is no 3 door.
I hate what they’ve done with hatchbacks, the squished, sloping rear ends with little glass. A ‘liftback’ style hatchback would be really neat, the Civic “sedan” suffers from an awful mail-slot trunk right now, a lift back would be a perfect fit IMO.
My family had a 1990 Civic Wagon, and plenty of friends had the 3 door hatchback of that generation. Now those were properly designed/proportioned vehicles IMO. Lots of glass, excellent utilization of space. When the Wagon got replaced with a Fit, we definitely regressed in terms of visibility and seat-up cargo room. Funny since the first generation Fit is regarded as having a large green house and fantastic cargo room within the class of contemporary competitors.
I don’t know which is worse; continued lowering of rooflines for Compromised Utility Vehicles or the evolution of the “squashback” (thx, DeeDub) from hatchbacks.
” A ‘liftback’ style hatchback would be really neat,”
Another vote for the lift back. It’s practical and looks good. See first generation Integra, and a particular model year I can’t recall of the Mazda6.
Audi currently offers the lift back style in its A5 and A7 — but I think that’s only for Europe.
Still, is it too soon to say Welcome Back Honda?
I didnt care much for the 88-91 Civic hatch, personally. Looked too much like a tiny delivery van. I much prefer the CRX or the Civic sedan of that generation.
To each their own.
I liked the 96-00(?) Civic hatch.
I’d kill for an unmolested, rust free ’88-91 Si Hatchback, or a 92-95 Si or VX hatchback for that matter. an RT4WD wagon with the 6spd manual (5 regular gears plus “Super Low”) would be even better. It got the multi-point injected 1.6L Si engine. Our Wagon was a lowly 1.5L with a laggy throttle body injection system, made worse by the car being an automatic. Still, 27 mpg around Ithaca NY’s hilly streets isn’t too bad. Owned the car from 60k in 1994 to 167k in 2007. Paid $6000 and sold it for $1400, needed an alternator, a few mufflers, a spring, a pair of CV joints and upper and lower control arms, and a used gas tank. Most of that came near the end of the car’s life after many years of poorly paved roads and lots of road salt. Fantastic little car. The Fit is earning its’ keep now also as a runabout and farm trucklet of sorts. It gets 35mpg under the same conditions, rides smoother, but is ultimately less fun to drive and not as charming as the old wagon.
@gtemnykh: I had an ’87 RT4wd Wagovan and wish I could get a comparable vehicle now.
Of course they just took the next generation Civic wagon put it on stilts and called it a CRV. So I guess that Honda didn’t suffer but eliminating the wagon.
Actually on second thought, I might prefer the first generation Odyssey. While trashed when it was launched for being ‘too small’ for a mini-van and having only a 4 cylinder engine, I believe that upgraded but with the same greenhouse, interior seating, etc it would be a big seller in Canada.
My Mom’s old 1990 Civic EX slusher Sedan was basically a sedan body dropped over an Si chassis!
That thing would rev just..because!! And love every minute of it!!
Too bad the tinworm got to it after awhile! Mom replaced it with a 2000 emm-kay-four Jetta (horrors!), and I got a more refined 1994 Civic EX out of college!
“Actually on second thought, I might prefer the first generation Odyssey. ”
More than 10 years ago I bought a used first generation Odyssey. It was small, but not too small. It had 4 doors but not the sliding kind. There was only a speedometer; no tach. And no v-tec. 0 to 60 was about 9 point something seconds.
But it had double-wishbones, great visibility, captain’s chairs for the 2nd row, and a disappearing 3rd row.
Built on the Accord platform, it felt a lot like an Accord; just slower.
Thats a damn good looking Cobalt.
No go if without Car Play.
It has CarPlay just like the Sedan does. The Sedan has it available on EX and above trims so I’m guessing the Coupe will be similar.
Looks a lot better than the current coupe. I’ve heard that a 1.5T + stick combo may be coming on the 2017 model, but it may not matter with the Si on the way. My only worry is that they’re going to screw with the styling on the Si model. I can almost guarantee they’re going to put a big dumb spoiler on it.
“I can almost guarantee they’re going to put a big dumb spoiler on it.”
It’s required! Si = Spoiler Injected. :)
The Civic Si needs to be extroverted, and available in at least one loud color. I’m inclined to let the boy racers have their fun. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for me, I’m not a boy anymore.
Actually Si = Spoiler included.
A 1.5T + 6MT is coming eventually. There was a story somewhere – on Ward’s or Autonews – that Honda was originally going to hold off on the 1.5T until the Civic’s MMC year for the 10th generation but then they decided to move it up to be available at launch. With time short they focused on getting the CVT version ready first – they had to create an all-new CVT just for the 1.5T as well so it wasn’t like they could just plug and play with their existing CVTs.
The Manual is going to die a cold, hard, much-deserved death.
Eventually all of these soul-less 4-pot econoboxes will have electric steering and autonomous driving.
You’ll tint your windows so no one will see you in one.
Let it drive while you sit on your smartphone…or PIP BOY.
Enthusiasts may be a small segment but the value they can bring to a brand is disproportionate to their numbers. “Car guys” are the ones regular people, the little people, go to when deciding on which car to buy. Their recommendation carries weight, even if they ultimately end up purchasing a tame and automatic product of the manufacturer the enthusiast favors. I hope Honda understands this.
Congrats. I’d never yet seen anyone match BT for delusional self-importance.
Oh, wait… BAFO. Sorry, gimme back the bowling trophy. I gotta send it to Oz.
MY best laugh of the day so far!!!
“even if they ultimately end up purchasing a tame and automatic”
Yeah, I know what you mean. I know an old guy who recently bought a Corvette………. automatic.
Scary, what enthusiasts favor.
By definition, an old man buying an auto Vette ain’t an enthusiast. He’s looking to Jack Nicholson his 26 year old girlfriend. Buying a Corvette with an auto is like drinking a light beer when there’s Yuengling on tap.
If those are my choices then its liquor for me.
Isn’t Yuengling a lighter beer? I guess they do have Yuengling Light.
*Whew*
I just googled Yuengling and learned it’s not Chinese. I don’t do alcohol so don’t know beers.
I just couldn’t imagine people aware of China’s penchant for recycling industrial waste actually imbibing any beverage produced there.
But ya never know.. trendy is trendy.
Its an amber lager. Sort of.
My wife likes Yeungling Light because she doesn’t really like beer.
I’ve been buying Founders and Bells cans lately. I need to get a new 1/2 keg for my kegerator too. The Founders Porter was gone after Halloween.
Kegerator? I feel as if I am at home.
Yeah. I bought one after the my basement flooded and my minifridge died. I figured it would be a better investment since I only put beer in there anyway.
RideHeight, Yuengling is the oldest brewery in the country, dating to 1833 and based in Pottsville in Eastern PA.
My wife likes Yuengling Light. I think ALL beer tastes like cat pee.
“I think ALL beer tastes like cat pee.” I think you have been tasting the wrong kind of beer. That yellow snow is not beer.
But seriously, try Jim Koch’s Sam Adams beer, or Ellie Leinenkugel’s craft beer. They are often hard to find because demand outstrips production capacity.
I used to be Bud man, and on occasion a Miller man. But since they went foreign, give me a Sam Adams.
dolorean, I know what you mean but that old guy I know lost his wife of 50+ years to cancer recently and bought the Corvette to go touring across the US.
His philosophy: “Never seen a Hearse with a U-Haul behind it.”
No 26-yo girlfriends. No girlfriends at all. Hell, not even a boyfriend; and that is a relief!!!
“But seriously, try Jim Koch’s Sam Adams beer, or Ellie Leinenkugel’s craft beer. They are often hard to find because demand outstrips production capacity.”
What? Maybe in the middle of nowhere; neither Sam nor Leiny is production constrained to my knowledge. Sam Octoberfest is my hands-down favorite beer.
S2k Chris: ” Maybe in the middle of nowhere; neither Sam nor Leiny is production constrained to my knowledge”
Badly phrased on my part. I should have said that availability in the middle of nowhere (where I live) is severely constrained because of distributor and retail outlet limitations.
Whenever I go out of town to visit one of the big cities, I always ask friends what they need that I can pick up for them, while there. (Like at the Commissary at Fort Bliss, TX, or elsewhere)
There’s usually quite a list and we make several stops picking up things for others. Sam and Leiny’s are always on the list since the retail outlets in our hamlet are always out of stock.
These days my 25-yo grand daughter does these shopping errands when she makes the shopping trips for the business to El Paso, TX or Las Cruces, NM.
@highdesert, I hear you and feel for your friend and will say this. The guy I was talking about was myself and was thinking about how much a cliche I am. My Uncle passed away recently from cancer and left me his near show-room perfect ’99 Corvette 4 spd automatic. And yes, though I’m 43 years old, I do have a 26 year old girlfriend. Well, for the time being anyway. It’s fun while it lasts :). Will say she found me, I didn’t go looking for younger women. Not my style usually.
Budda-Boom,
Agreed on beer. It always reminds me of urine a few hours after a carb binge.
The Corvette is very suitable as automatic when you consider it as a GT car.
Which you can, cause it’s comfortable and luggage fits in.
C4 Auto FTW.
Corey, you needed to add that a sports-car body is also required to get in and out of any sports car, from the Miata to the Corvette, and anything in between.
I no longer possess a sports-car body. I no longer bend well, nor can I contort myself to get into anything other than a full-size truck.
As the car guy*/computer guy/electronics guy in my family/circle of friends, I get asked all the time, “What to buy”. I give thorough, point-by-point advice, tailored to the individual. That person then goes and buys whatever the hell they want, usually not what I recommended.
*One of my friends has swapped a couple engines, so I have to bow to him as the “car guy”.
I trust neither of you refers to your advisees as “the little people”.
I know! A friend asks me about midsize cars. We talked about the Fusion and Accord. She says she loves the Fusion’s styling and knows Hondas are excellent cars with great quality.
So, she goes and buys an Altima. I asked if she looked at Fusion or Accord. Nope, she *thought* they would be too expensive (she was considering CPO type cars). I said “so you didnt drive or look at anything besides Altima?” “Yes, I drove a GMC Envoy the Nissan dealer had before buying the Altima.”
Wtf? Mid size sedan shopping…look at only ONE and while youre at it, test drive a crappy excuse for an SUV for no reason at all.
The Fusion and Accord probably wouldve been more expensive at first glance, but Im sure if enough time was spent, she couldve found an acceptable car close in price to what she gave for the Altima.
Annoying pet-peve about the Altima (that I drove 60 miles yesterday that KILLED my back): the battery in the key fob is apperantly bad, so ever since she got the car, the fob must be inserted into its slot while operating the car. So, what the hell good is push button start if you still have to plug the fob in? If you dont, the warning display on the dash tells you to. Yeah, SO much better than sticking a key in an ignition! Nissan dealer’s reply: “They all do that.”
Around 2002, I had a friend that said he wanted an Audi A4. I suggested that he look at a VW Passat, as it was essentially a bigger version of the A4 for a lower price. He said he liked that idea and would look into it. Months go by with him talking alternately about his desire for an A4 or his intention to buy a Passat. Then one day he showed up in a new Explorer Sport 2-door.
That’s why I’m reluctant to give advice these days. It’s almost always “make me feel better about the car I desperately want that doesn’t really fit my use case,” not “tell me what would work well for me.” It’s fine and human if people desperately want an irrational car — only one car purchase I’ve ever made has been rational, and that one bored me so much I turned it in 3 months before lease end. But don’t try to force me to tell you it IS rational.
Good point. I’ve found that nearly all people who ask car buying advice are actually looking for reassurance that they made a good purchase and nearly always on the irrational desire quotient. The Minivan vs. SUV/CUV argument or four door sedan vs. full size crew cab pickup comes to mind. Why ask me my opinion on why you should get an AWD sedan and then buy the base model crewcab?, I couldn’t tell you. People just love to hear themselves thihk sometimes.
Nice!
You had me worried about the “But where’s the manual” line….. Couldn’t care one iota which trim level has what, as long as a proper tranny is at least available. Honda engineers and planners even seem to have realized that NA engines are the proper ones to pair with a manual. Kudos!
Seriously doubt the engineers had any input. More likely decided by bean-counters for lowest possible price and have only 1 per dealer.
It’s still Honda. Not the Honda of “infinite funding for anything, no questions asked” from the McLaren – NSX era, but still a culture fairly beholden to the engineering side.
I think I like it. And I probably wouldn’t want the turbo engine anyway, so that would work. I’m eager to see the Si in production dress.
I will say, though, that it should absolutely be a hatch/liftback with that tiny awkward trunk opening. And it’s unfortunate about the model bloat.
Why bother with 5 more inches of legroom in the back. With a roof line like that, the back seat is for toddlers only.
My first thought, too, when reading the 5″ more claim. I hadn’t bothered commenting on it, though, because there invariably pops up some fanboi to say “Well, I once gave Cam Newton a ride in the back of my SI and he no problem!”
When my family visited this summer, they rented a new Sonata. That car had limousine levels of rear seat legroom, and a roof low enough to make me want to sit on the floor.
We’re seeing this design stupidity because elections have consequences. Legroom is flourishing in small cars because CAFE requirements shrink when wheelbases and tracks grow.
>>The relevant dimension is called the “footprint” and is defined as the product of a vehicle’s wheelbase and track, in square feet. The idea is to apply fuel-efficiency standards to individual vehicles, thus encouraging all cars and trucks to be more fuel efficient.
Here’s how it works. A 2010 Honda Accord has a wheelbase of 110.2 inches and a track of 62.6 inches. Multiplying those two figures yields a footprint of 47.9 square feet. If you plug that figure into the government’s formula, you get a target mpg of 35.9 for 2016. The smaller its footprint, the higher the fuel economy a given vehicle has to meet. A current Ford Focus would have to achieve 40.8 by 2016, while a Mercedes S-class will have a bogey of 31.8 mpg. The aforementioned 328i will have to hit 38.2 mpg<<
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-automakers-will-meet-2016-cafe-standards
Welcome to the world of compact coupes that have bigger wheelbases than midsized cars did a decade ago.
My very first thought was that this looked very Altima-ish.
Then I was distracted by the obnoxious cousin of the Acura front grill.
The 5″ more legroom is so you can slouch way down to avoid banging your head constantly.
I might be in the minority but I like the current gen better for looks. This thing looks like a 2-door Crosstour from the rear 3/4!
Agreed. I think the new Civic looks hideous from any angle.
One of the features I’ve always liked about the Civic design – forever – is the low hoodline. This one looks quite high and bulbous – yuk.
Is that Honda’s fault or pedestrian safety regs?
I don’t think *anything* available in the US or even Europe has the classic Civic hoodline anymore.
At least it’s not a Mazda moose nose.
I guess all the ugly car design in the world won’t stop idiots from walking into traffic…
Or idiots from barreling through occupied crosswalks.
Not just pedestrian safety regs, but also a dash with room for modern infotainment and current-technology airbags, and a design vogue for smaller windows.
I test-drove a bunch of Legends in preparation for buying the one that’s going to arrive on my doorstep this weekend. The first time I got in one after over a decade of nothing but modern cars I was literally startled by the lowness of the cowl, even though I owned and drove an ’88 Accord for years.
Don’t know what to make of this new Civic. Not simple enough to be cheap. Not charterful enough to demand attention or a price premium. It’s not for me, I guess.
Ladies and gentlemen, Honda is proud to announce the unveiling of (dramatic pause)……
The 2016 Honda Sunfire GT.
The manual is in the glove box. :)
Another source said that Honda was working on/planning to offer a manual with the turbo motor, but it wouldn’t be in the initial run. I hope so but at the same time its disappointing to only see it offered in the coupe. Adulthood has dimmed my view of two door version of mass market cars. It makes sense for a Mustang to be a two door, but what do you really gain from making a Civic one? All you do is lose space/practicality/versatility. I’m saying this as a single guy who rarely carries back seat passengers but still need easily accessible cargo space. I’d level the same critique at the Accord for being V-6 manual in 2 door form only. Here’s to hoping Honda recognizes the enthusiast bent of many hatchback buyers and gives them a full range of transmission, engine, and trim choices.
There will still be a Civic Si sedan. Honda probably rightly figures there will be few people who A) want a manual 1.5T sedan and B) won’t spring for the Si, so why bother?
@S2k Chris – I understand from a business perspective why there’s no manual 1.5t 4 door; I’m not sure why Honda offers a manual at all. I’m just lamenting that a person is forced that you can’t have practicality, efficiency/affordability, and fun all in the same package.
We are a Honda family…had 2 ’13 Civics and a ’14 Accord until one of the Civics got totaled in a collision, have had about 10 other Honda products over the years. I would not even consider a Cruze…until I had one as a rental last weekend in FL. LTZ trim, nice upright seating position, which beats the heck out of the “sitting on the floor” posture in a Honda, nicely screwed together, 20,000 miles on it and all the trim and paint seemed to be holding up well.
If I can get my bride to look at something other than another Accord, perhaps we will take a look at Chevrolet the next time we go car shopping.
Not a Civic fan…no torque, compared to the Accord, and too small.